Why Are We Religious?

As an anthropologist, Barbara King studies human ancestors who lived thousands, even millions, of years ago. But her writings on the origins of religion strike a modern chord with an unlikely pairing, scientists and theologians.

Earlier this year, the College of William and Mary professor published "Evolving God," her thoughts on how early man developed his religious imagination. Though it's the first time she's tackled the topic of religion in her research, the book has been named one of the top 10 religion books for 2007 by the American Library Association/Booklist. It's garnered far more attention than any of her previous publications, and the response suggests to her that people continue to struggle with the relationship between religion and science.

King doesn't suffer from the illusion that her book will be universally well-received. In the final chapter, "God and Science in Twenty-First-Century America," she points to surveys indicating that "60 percent of Americans believe that the Bible stories are word-for-word true, and 55 percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form." But for those who accept the theory of evolution, her book offers much material for discussion.

Evolutionists do not believe that man descended from the apes, she says, but rather that man and the apes share a common ancestor and exhibit similar behaviors. Much of her research has involved studying the behavior of gorillas and other apes in Africa and places closer to home such as the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. From her observations, she's developed the theory that one of the most powerful precursors to religion is a concept she calls belongingness, which is "mattering to someone who matters to you."

Belongingness is the need to relate to one another, as members of a family or a society. Humans have it, and apes have it, too.

"I got to thinking about how important social groups are," King says. "We've evolved to really seek connections with each other. People matter to us."

Her theory is that this need to relate to one another evolved into a need to relate to a higher power.

"In scientific lingo, belongingness is a necessary condition for the evolution of religion," she writes. "Over the course of prehistory, belongingness was transformed from a basic emotion relating between individuals to a deeper relating, one that had the potential to become transcendent, between people and supernatural beings or forces."

King says she is writing against the gene-determinant theory, which says that things like language and religion are coded in our genes. Before she tackled the topic of religion, she came to believe that social and emotional interaction between humans, and between apes, had a major role in how language developed. An editor at Doubleday Religion urged her to examine religion in the same way she looked at language.

Her book has been picked up by leading newspapers and online magazines and has led to speaking engagements at religious conventions.

"People are wanting to understand where the yearning to connect to God comes from," she says. "Many people are personally grappling with science and religion. I'm saying there are all kinds of ways to bring these things together."

King isn't out to prove whether or not God exists. In that same closing chapter, she writes, "I do not believe that science can 'explain' religion ... I do believe that science can explain something meaningful about the evolution of the religious imagination."

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"Evolving God" by Barbara J. King ($24.95) is published by Doubleday and available at area and online bookstores.